Family and Education

b. ?1717, o. surv. s. of John Morley Trevor of Glynde. educ. Eton 1725, Ch. Ch. Oxf. 2 Apr. 1734, aged 17; Grand Tour c.1737-8. m. 1740, Elizabeth, da. of Sir Thomas Frankland, 3rd Bt., of Thirkleby, Yorks., s.p. suc. fa. 1719.

Offices Held

Ld. of Admiralty Mar. 1742-d.

Biography

Trevor was on the grand tour when he received a letter from his cousin, the British minister at The Hague, telling him that the Duke of Newcastle was nominating him for a vacant seat at Lewes which, it was understood, would cost him nothing, and that ministers desired him to return at once to England for the meeting of Parliament.1 In a letter to Newcastle announcing his immediate return he explained why he had hitherto been reluctant to accept the Duke’s offer to bring him in for Lewes:

The way of life I have hitherto led made me think myself incapable of success in the borough of Lewes at present, and though under your Grace’s protection I don’t despair it, I had rather this affair ... had happened when I had been more known in the town and I then should not have been so heavy on your Grace’s hands.2

Returned at a by-election, he voted with the Government on the Spanish convention in 1739 and the place bill in 1740. In 1739 Newcastle through his agent suggested to him that he should buy some houses at Lewes which were to be had for £700. Trevor replied:

Though it would be so extremely inconvenient to me to take up any sum of money that I have debarred myself of many indulgences merely for the want of it, yet would I give no direct denial till I had first given your Grace this trouble, and I assure you, my Lord, that the thoughts of my being an additional weight to your Grace’s expense upon these occasions gives me much greater uneasiness than a seat in Parliament can ever give me pleasure, which consideration, I own would make it much more agreeable to me to contribute any little interest that I may have towards the benefit of someone whose inclination it might be perhaps to push the thing more immediately, though I defy any person upon the whole to appear better inclined than him on whom your Grace has already conferred the honour of a candidate.3

Re-elected after a contest in 1741, Trevor voted with the Government on the chairman of the elections committee. After Walpole’s fall he was one of the two members of the old corps who were appointed to the new Admiralty board. His appointment, Horace Walpole wrote, ‘is much disliked, for he is of no consequence for estate, and much less for parts, but is a relation of the Pelhams’.4 He voted for the Hanoverians, December 1742. In June 1743 he began to show signs of insanity, ‘doing nothing but dance and sing and write challenges all day’. In July, though under the charge of a doctor, he attempted to commit suicide.5 He died some time in September 1743, leaving Glynde to his cousin, Dr. Richard Trevor, bishop of Durham, the brother of John Trevor.6

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

• 1. HMC 14th Rep. IX, 9.
• 2. 13 Jan. 1738, Add. 32691, f. 17.
• 3. 11 Oct. 1739, Add. 32692, f. 368.
• 4. To Mann, 23 Mar. 1742.
• 5. HMC Astley, 250, 268, 281, 292.
• 6. Horsfield, Suss. ii. 116.